NC Music Factory
2009 Preservation Award Winner
Award: Preservation Excellence
Owner: ARK Group
Builder/Developer: Fiber Mills, LLC
Architect: Mistri Hardaway Architects
In 1904, John B. Ross constructed the first building on the Fiber Mills site, a one-story brick building used as a textile mill. The remaining buildings were constructed in stages from 1904 through the 1950’s and still retain most of their original structure today.
ARK Group, Fiber Mills LLC and Mistri Hardaway Architects are honored for their collective efforts in the preservation and revitalization of the 210,000 square foot Fiber Mills site. Now home to the NC Music Factory, painstaking efforts were taken beginning in 2002 to restore and reuse the complex of early to mid twentieth-century buildings. The underlying goal was to bring a new life to these beautiful old buildings by preserving the building shell and finishes, adding new windows in bricked-in window openings, refinishing interior surfaces and adding new systems. The additive renovation was done in a straightforward modern design vocabulary that addresses uses and budgets of today but in the context of the warm glow of old wood and texture of brick.